God as part of my life (but in no way do I expect everyone to agree.

HelenM · ‎08-12-2015

Life's quite tough at the moment. When I go to bed I feel the best because the day can't ask any more from me. I write a prayer to God and read a little book that helps. God is dwith me always but unfortunately I don't feel it often during the day. But if I read of religious people from the past some had a good relationship God but it didn't make everything honkey dorey. In fact I think that they were often writing years later and distance enhances the view. When I look at some of my depressions from the past they don't seem so bad. I

t seems Mother Teresa found God to be absent throughout most of her life. I'm going out soon and can't finish what I'm saying. Plus I'm getting quite confused. Helen x

BKYTH · ‎11-01-2016

I agree with your assessment of that quote. Since suffering is an inevitable part of life it seems futile to resist it. When difficulties arise it is more useful to say "why not me?" as "why me?" If complaint or self pity had any practical value to them they would be of use at such times but for me that doesn't seem to be the case. As someone who has no interest in the existence or non existence of God I see life itself as a process devoid of any inherent fairness or justice and being just as indifferent to the question of whether or not there is life after death I cannot look there to expect some final rationale of lifes vicissitudes to be revealed to me as some part of a supreme beings elegant plan. I wonder if what you are alluding to in the first three lines of your poem is the way in which all of us, if we allow ourselves, can find companionship in our sense of despair and suffering rather than to incorporate such experiences into our lives in such a way that we can transcend them and move forward. "Let your soul live at least to seek purity in an indifferent world" seems to me to be a commandment for us to be more than what we can ever be if we allow ourselves to be defined by the jargon of any definition. It is not our suffering that defines us but rather our capacity to find the "purity" that is all around us even if we have long ago lost the capacity to see or recognize it. Philip.

Sparkles183 · ‎11-01-2016

Hi Helen,

i hope u r still around on these forums

i am just reading over your thread after having a break from these forums for the last couple of months.

I think being a Christian or religious and having a mental illness is one of the hardest things and the next hardest thing is accepting u have a mental illness. I think that is because the lack of aceptence within the church as well, a lot of people within the church sees it as emotions not as a illness.

I was first diagnosed with depression in 2012 . ( although I had it for many years before that) at that time I had a volunteer position as assotiate pastor within a church. And I just literally ran away from my diagnosis I left my job and my my church and traveled thinking God was going to do some miricle.

It is not until just recently that I am starting to accept my illness and what I have to do to get better. I just finished reading an article before I checked these forums on famous Christians with depression and it talks about a famous lady who is a host of a Christian tv show and she has now came to a place where she wakes up in the morning grabs a glass of water takes her tablet and says a prayer of thanksgiving thanking to God for the doctors.

I am not at that place yet but I will sure like to be.

as for for feeling the presence of God and feeling God is with me sometimes I find that difficult myself although having been through both of the feeling the prescence of God day in and day out. And times like now where I hardly feel him I know it is times like now that I grow the most in my faith. It is a biblical exp to have times in the desert ( when u r not feeling God) but we all get through it no mater how difficult it may be...

i hope things r getting better for u take care

sparkles